Fear the Beard?

Okay don’t fear the beard. I just titled the post that to grab your attention. Let’s get away from doing takfir and say any man who doesn’t have a fear isn’t a practicing Muslim.

I remember at Brooklyn college, a bunch of brothers would get together daily to pray Salat. As usual, there was always that awkward moment when everyone would look at each other and wait until someone leads.

One brother told another to lead because he had the longest beard. Ha!

Anyway, the beard is Sunnah and you know what they say “The Sunnah, the Better”. A philosopher once said, there are two types of people in the world who don’t have beards, “Women and Children”.

I find the beard topic interesting, not only because you’re profiled based on it but it’s almost always taken out of context.

No doubt, Islam is based upon both inward and outward practice but when you got someone telling you about the beard rather than the fundamentals of the deen, then we got something wrong. Priorities yo!

Growing a beard won’t make you a super Muslim, the embodiment of the Sunnah comes full circle and needs to be understood at a deep level.

On the other hand, you got brothers who can’t grow beards as thick as James Harden or Gandalf from lord of the rings so let’s also be cognizant of that.

Lastly, let’s remember this Ayah from the Qur’an:

“Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knows best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.” (An-Nahl: 12)